Cattle producers near Riding Mountain National Park are thrilled that the Manitoba government will keep picking up some of the tuberculosis testing tab. “We think it’s great,” said Manitoba Cattle Producers Association general manager Sheila Mowat. “It shows that the government recognizes what these producers in the Riding Mountain Eradication Area are having to face […] Read more
Ed White
Stories by Ed White
Farmers guard promise of high price – Special Report (story 1)
Crop prices are looking so good this year that they are becoming irrelevant in many farmers’ seeding decisions. The rally in crop commodity markets has been so widespread that farmers say there is no reason to favour one crop over another. Instead, they are able to focus on growing crops that will do best on […] Read more
Sunflower prices should stay up
In December, Fred Parnow had a tough job. By mid-January that job had become much easier, although it’s still a struggle to convince farmers to grow sunflowers. What changed? Prices. Since early December sunflower prices have shot up about 20 percent, from less than 20 cents per pound for oilseed sunflowers and 25 cents for […] Read more
KAP delegates call for livestock action
Many Manitoba producers may be basking in the glow of the fiery crop markets, but part of the focus at the Keystone Agricultural Producers convention was on the plight of livestock producers. “It is a real crisis,” said outgoing KAP president David Rolfe. “It’s unprecedented. And it’s time for governments to take action.” The concern […] Read more
Canada braces for U.S. pork tariff
The Canadian hog industry is on red alert for U.S. trade actions. “I think there’s reason to be worried,” said Manitoba hog producer Garry Tolton. “Any time you see the Americans losing money, you know there’s a chance of a trade action.” American hog producers pushed for and received a U.S. government investigation and attack […] Read more
Farmers’ fertilizer use praised
BRANDON – Enhanced efficiency fertilizers sound like just the thing for the progressive prairie producer. But “growers in the Prairies have already adopted a lot of the best management fertilizer practices that help you to use fertilizer quite well,” Manitoba Agriculture specialist John Heard said at a Manitoba Ag Days seminar. About 75 percent of […] Read more
Declare war on brome or be sorry
BRANDON – Manitoba farmers are lucky: only a handful have problems with downy brome and Japanese brome. But that’s no excuse to remain happily ignorant of the weeds, which are ravaging fields across the U.S. Great Plains and on the Canadian Prairies. “If you don’t know downy brome and you don’t know Japanese brome, get […] Read more
No good news for beef producers
BRANDON – After hearing the Canadian cattle market outlook for 2008, farmer Robert Smith of Austin, Man., had one question. “Why shouldn’t I sell all my cows, take the poor land and sell hay, and put the rest into grain,” he asked analyst Andrea Brocklebank of Canfax, the Canadian cattle industry market analysis firm. “Is […] Read more
Markets rare oasis of honesty in ambiguous world – Hedge Row
Politicians almost never admit they’ve been wrong. Market analysts are almost pathologically the opposite: they not only admit their mistakes, but seem to take great delight in doing so, even if no one’s calling them to task. That was obvious recently in the flood of annual reviews and outlooks that most market analysis firms released. […] Read more
Bare hilltops can be restored
BRANDON – The hilltops in many farmers’ fields look a lot like the tops of many older farmers’ heads: pretty bare, with only a thin, wispy covering. They’re hardly worth shaving with the combine at harvest. But farmers don’t need to accept the baldness of their hilltops, David Lobb of the University of Manitoba’s soil […] Read more
